The Saints and quarterback Jameis Winston looked great last Sunday. This week, not.
After the 26-7 Carolina win over New Orleans, Panthers pass-rusher Haason Reddick explained the approach to shutting down Winston and the Saints.
“Just simply to get after him,” Reddick told PFT by phone. “Pressure him and like I said, just get after him. Try to get him off his star spot. Affect him. We knew that he was a big part of what they did last week and we knew if we could affect him this week that we could have a good chance at winning the game.”
I asked Reddick whether the plan included trying to get Winston to attempt to do too much, in the hopes that he’d rewind the clock to his 30-interception season of 2019.
“We were definitely aware of his past,” Reddick said. “After last week, he looked like a different QB. We knew he didn’t throw the ball a lot. We knew that their run game was going. When you see that they have 20 throwing attempts that means their rush game must have been going. We just knew that if we could affect him, if we could get to him, then we would have a chance at the end of the day. He looked real, real good last week as I watched the film. Able to escape the pocket. Throw the ball. Five touchdowns on 20 pass attempts. I mean, that’s just ridiculous. Like I said we knew that if we could get to him, affect him, get him off the spot that we’ll be good and have a good chance.”
Enhancing the effort was the fact that the Panthers systematically pulled away.
“We just knew as the score kept going up and we kept getting a wider margin on the Saints, we just knew what was coming,” Reddick said. “At some point we knew they were having to drop back and pass the ball. At that point it was time for us to pin our ears back and go get after him.”
Get after him they did. And the Panthers are now 2-0, making them a major player in the NFC, for now.